First Law recruits, manages and books specialist panels of individual lawyers for the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Our involvement in law panels began with the General Medical Council in 2001 with its first competitive legal tender exercise in 100 years. We recruited its new panel of Legal Assessors who advise the GMC’s fitness to practise panels.

After five years of successful service for the GMC, First Law won a competitive tender to manage the panel of Legal Assessors serving the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

We now book and appraise more than 80 individual Legal Assessors who serve the fitness to practise panels of both the GMC and NMC. This involves us in co-ordinating the schedules of hearings, making bookings on a daily basis, dealing with changes, adjournments and cancellations as they arise and administering the payment of sitting fees.

Our appraisal function requires us to monitor feedback forms completed by the chairmen of the panels. We notify Legal Assessors of adverse comments on their performance and a second warning means that Legal Assessor can no longer remain a member of the panel.

Our Legal Assessors all have a minimum of 10 years' post qualification experience in a judicial or adjudicatory capacity and their performance is continually appraised. First Law can accept bookings of members of the panel from any organisations requiring judicial-type services on an ad hoc basis. Please contact us for details of the daily sitting fees.

Email: panels@firstlaw.co.uk
Tel: 020 7353 8888